


Borrowed Time

by UnchartedHeart



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Friendship/Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-12-14 05:29:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/833303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnchartedHeart/pseuds/UnchartedHeart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hi, I'm Matt, and this is my first fanfic EVER. I hope you enjoy it, and any comments you want to share are encouraged wholeheartedly :) No beta or anything, so gently does it, m'dears x</p>
<p>Just good old-fashioned swearing, nothing sexually explicit. </p>
<p>You know the episode where Danny nearly dies because of that bomb with the laser thing? And Steve won't leave him?</p>
<p>Well, I just LOVED that. I'm not sure what your opinion is of our favourite boys, but what I DO know is that whether they'd like to get into each other's pants or not, the basis of that relationship is love, and it runs deep. I just wanted to write something to celebrate that, because it's so undiluted and raw.</p>
<p>I'm particularly interested in these guys because of what I hope to write about formally - the relationships between men. Tall, short, thin, fat, black, white men. They can seem superficial, but often they run just as deep as any female friendship. Steve and Danny are a great example of that, I think. OH, I don't own them, or anything to do with them, by the way. That's not allowed.</p>
<p>Okay, enough of me. This is my starting point in hopefully a long line of fics. Maybe a series. Leave it all to God. Hope you like it :) x</p>
            </blockquote>





	Borrowed Time

“I need you to take care of Grace.”

  
Steve had never felt so utterly useless, except for maybe when he’d heard his father being shot over the telephone.

But this was real, this was here and raw and in front of him, and even the SEALs hadn’t taught him how to deal with a motion-sensitive bomb training its laser on his partner’s chest. This was different.

  
This was Danny.

  
And that was why Steve stayed put, with only a T-shirt and his trademark cargo pants for protection from the imminent blast. The same pants Danny was always teasing him about. For a man trained to kill in hundreds of different ways, Lieutenant Commander Steven McGarrett could be rather predictable.

  
But not now. Staying with Danny was completely crazy, irrational, stupid. Even the guy from the bomb squad had spared a moment to look up from his task to spare a thought for Steve’s safety. Hell, the Navy had taught him to walk away from situations like this. What was there to be gained by hanging on other than two casualties instead of one?

  
And Steve would have let his training take over, would have compartmentalised the feelings boiling in his blood, and ran for cover. Except for one critical detail – this wasn’t a brother-in-arms. This was Danny. Daniel, D… Danno.

  
So when the officer told him to leave, the advice had meant nothing for Steve, but everything for Danny. The prognosis couldn’t be terribly good if the bomb squad was looking to minimise casualties, which was only confirmed by the infernal device’s incessant beeps increasing in frequency.

  
Which is why Steve looked Danny in the eye and told him,

  
“That’s your job, pal. You’re her dad.”

  
He put aside his anger, his hatred, for the dead bastard whose chest the bomb was strapped to, who’s death wish seemed to be the subsequent and messy departure of Steve’s partner, his best friend, his… Danny.

  
Useless he may be, Steve found that he had already determined that he was not, under any circumstances, going to leave Danny’s side. Not now.

  
And that’s exactly what Steve tried to project silently, in the undertones of his assertion and direct eye contact with Danny’s clear, blue pools.  
I’d die for you.

  
Or, maybe.

  
I’d die with you.

  
Steve had seen a lot of men and women die. It came with the job. But amidst the panic he recognised all too-well in Danny’s breathless plea, deep-set frown and tear-filled eyes, Steve found something else. Something much less common in those who are not long for this world.

  
Acceptance.

  
Steve felt his friend’s despair at having to leave his daughter, all alone in the world, without her Danno to look out for her. And JesusMaryandJoseph, Steve wished with all his heart that it were he in mortal peril and Danny with the choice. Stay, or go. Steve would’ve made him leave, walk away, not look back. Make him promise not to waste his life in mourning, because he had a little girl who loved and needed him.

  
But Danny wasn’t begging Steve to leave. He’d told him, once, and then let it drop. Steve spared a moment to ponder why. Maybe, he nearly chuckled to himself, he’s resigned himself to the fact that the McGarretts are a stubborn clan, and rarely change their mind once their heart’s been set on something. Or perhaps his thoughts were otherwise occupied just now, what with his imminent demise and all. Or…

  
Steve only had to catch Danny’s eye for a fraction of a second to know the truth, written in the space between them that Steve longed to close.

  
It’s okay, it’s alright. I know. I’d die with you too.

  
Steve’s heart broke. There was something a little all too familiar in Danny’s compliance with fate that painfully reminded him of his father’s last words, and Steve ached to reach out and grab the man of his heart and pull him close, feeling his warmth flooding his body as it flowed from that big heart of his, as the world was blasted to atoms and quarks and leptons…

  
Steve didn’t, however. Firstly, and quite simply, men do not do such things. Secondly, Steve didn’t think that such an action was particularly prudent, given the probably outcome being quite so incendiary. If there was any chance of Danny surviving this, God spare the bomb squad some luck, Steve wanted him to have it. He deserved that, didn’t deserve this, after all he’d been through back in Jersey. Besides, Danny would rant for all eternity if Steve killed them both for the sake of a cuddle.

  
“Of all the times to go all warm and cuddly on me, Steven,” he’d say.

  
And yet.

  
Through all the pain, and loss, Daniel Williams hadn’t let any of it change who he was. Not an inch, not a mile.

  
Kind.

  
Giving a passing little girl a huge stuffed animal, because it would make her smile.

  
Reassuring a young boy in an elevator that everything was going to be okay, because he liked hippos too.

  
Being the best father he possibly could be by leaving behind his family, his friends, his Jersey, all for her.

  
And if these were his last moments of cognitive function, Steve felt with bone-deep certainty that he wanted to spend them thinking of this Jersey boy with a heart of gold overflowing with something rarer in this world than diamonds.

  
Unconditional love.

  
Steven McGarrett had never met a single person who gave it out as freely as Daniel Williams.

  
One of the few things his mother taught him that he can still dimly recall was that,

  
“You’ll know when you’ve found your soul mate, Stevie, because they’ll inspire you, every single day, to be the best person you can be.”

  
At his mother’s funeral, Steve had asked his father, “Did mum inspire you?”

  
His father had bluntly, yet honestly, replied,

  
“No. But that’s not why I married her. Marry the woman you love, Steve-O. Follow your heart, and all that mushy crap, if you ever hope to have a chance of happiness in this fucking son-of-a-bitch called life.”

  
Time ravages memory. Steve had been young when his mother had told him thus, and his father’s advice must also be regarded with a healthy cynicism, given his prior consumption of several voluminous glasses of whiskey, straight up. But now, Steve wondered, maybe they were both right. Minus the woman part, probably.

  
The bomb’s beeping was getting excruciatingly more urgent by the second. Steve bit his lip so hard that he drew blood, but didn’t taste it or use his mouth to say anything else. It had all be said already, in words and in silent glances.

  
Leave it all to God, thought Steve, and took a last breath of warm Hawaiian air, smelling of the paradise that Steve was giving up, just so Danno wouldn’t be alone in his final moments. Steve closed his eyes, breathed out, knowing that it was a decision he’d make again in a heartbeat.  
His last.

  
Abruptly, the beeping stopped. There was no deafening BOOM, no searing pain of flame on skin and sinew, no force like a concrete fist, lifting him off his feet. And Steve had to wonder if death by explosion was really so blissfully painless. He needed to revise his end-of-life plans, clearly. The sun still felt warm on his skin. The breeze played with the hairs on the nape of his neck. Birds cawed distantly to each other. Did heaven feel just like Hawaii?

  
Still unsure as to what would meet his gaze when he did, Steve decided to open his eyes, prepared to face the wrath of his Maker.

  
Instead, he saw Danny.

  
Shaking out his stiff limbs from the enforced inactivity, slicking his hair back with a sweaty palm, alive and breathing and croaking,

  
“Thank God.”

  
Steve had no words, but sent up a quick prayer to whoever might be listening.

  
Thank you.

  
Steve was brought back to earth by his partner’s words, forced out between raspy breaths,

  
“Thanks for… sticking around.”

  
Danny’s voice was a little strained, a little cracked, but it was all Steve wanted to hear, because it meant that Danno was okay.

  
God, Steve wanted to hug the man, the physical contact enough to ground him. Instead, he held back, pulling himself together again, hiding how he felt again, for Danny’s sake. The man didn’t need any more grief.

  
But, Danny being Danny, Steve shouldn’t have been surprised that the blonde detective pushed himself up off his knees, and make a slow but sure totter towards his partner, intentions projected in his outstretched arms. Tough guy act dropped, professional boundaries forgotten. What else was there for Steve to do but to fold into that embrace, pulling Danny snug against him? So he did. He felt Danny’s hammering heart against his chest, and Danny felt Steve’s, beating loud for him. The sun shone, the wind whistled with the song of gulls, and the two men enjoyed the simple joy found in holding and being held.

  
Danny elicited a nervous, shaky laugh into Steve’s chest. The vibrations reverberated of fear now-passed and gratitude for the sun, wind, gulls, Steve… everything.

  
And Steve just crumbled in his friend’s arms. He let the machismo and bravado slip, in spite of the crowd of spectators around them. He choked on a shaky chuckle, and burrowed his face into Danny’s neck, smelling his particular scent of aftershave and perfume transferred from Grace when they'd hugged this morning. And would get to hug again, for another day.

  
Thank you.

  
So much of this man was wrapped around his little girl, which was probably why, for Steve, loving Danny meant loving Gracie.

  
When Danny pulled away from him, Steve let him go.

Tonight wasn’t about Steve. It was for a father and his daughter, and dance moves that Steve was doubtful that Danny could pull off because he’s never seen D like that before. But now, he was just thankful for one day that he might.

  
As he watched his partner walk off into the evening, Steven McGarrett thought some things. How funny it is, that we only appreciate what we have when it’s almost taken from us. How blue the sky was, and how welcome the dampness of sweat on his back from a day chasing terrorists underneath the fireball of a star, exploding in space. How he never wanted Danny to be alone, if he could help it.

  
How to make up for borrowed time.

**Author's Note:**

> PS I tried to type the Americanism "mom" instead of "mum" for realism's sake, but I laughed at myself, shook my head, and went with my native Anglophilic version. No regrets.
> 
> Thank you for stopping by!
> 
> Got a request for me to write something?
> 
> I LOVE YOU.
> 
> Like, seriously. I want to be a better writer, and that would help me so much, you have no idea.
> 
> Anyway, just enjoy today, because this is all we have. And it is BEAUTIFUL. xx


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